Trump: 128 Days Later

[Breccia]

So Trump, after calling the first 100 days both the most successful in history and also a false standard in the same fucking speech, failed to meet the vast majority of the promises he signed, flip-flopped 32 times and only worked for 60 of those 100 days.

I thought he would slow down. I thought I wouldn't have to write one of these for a while. I was wrong.

REGULATIONS: THE OTHER "RED TAPE" IN THE WHITE HOUSE

Easily the smallest category because the "easy mode" window (known as the CRA) is now closed, and Trump is far behind on his promises. Turns out, those first 100 days really did mean something, and Trump squandered them playing golf.

MUSLIM BAN: EXECUTIVE DISORDERED

Block upheld.

The Fourth Circuit court ruled 10-3 in favor of letting the Muslim Ban remain blocked. Here is there 205 page ruling in its entirety, but yes, they found the Muslim Ban was, well, a Muslim Ban, and as such, unConstitutional. The Ninth has yet to rule.

The only other news worth mentioning is that the ACLU demanded and a federal court subpoena'd Giulani's memo and he never turned it over to the court as mandated; that Giulani is slowly backing away from his involvement; and that Trump is trying a third time by simply giving embassies broader discretion on blocking visitors and visas.

COAL AND OIL: PROMISES UP IN SMOKE

There has been no significant change in the coal market. Coal remains economically unviable. Wait, sorry, read that wrong. It should have been "coal remains economically unviable." There have been no laws signed, no E.O.'s written, to create coal jobs, nor is there a hint of such in the forseeable future.

Trump seems far more interested in oil than coal anyhow. He's pushing for more offshore drilling, opening up drilling in Alaska (causing two more staffers to resign in protest), and letting Tillerson's Exxon get a waiver to work with a state-run Rusian oil company...although admittedly that last one fell through after strong biparistan opposition. He could do an even better job, if Trump's many vacancies weren't slowing down the pipelines (the ones not made out of US steel, just to reiterate) and he wasn't talking about rasing the gas tax. There was also some noise about him selling off half our oil reserves which I admit I'm not fully versed on, but according to people who are, the reserves are an "insurance" against fluctuations in the market...which Trump is causing. Also, wouldn't this glut the market and drive prices down? Why'd he announce this while in Saudi Arabia of all places?

But again: despite extensive promises, no movement on coal.

FOREIGN RELATIONS: STAMINA

Trump ended his first visit abroad telling troops he hit a home run. There is barely enough evidence to suggest he got to first base, and he may have gotten there by being hit by the pitcher.

First, Saudi Arabia. This is the visit that made Roger Stone want to puke. He then signed an arms deal -- at the same time Saudis gave millions upon millions to Ivanka's pet charity, what are the odds -- bowed before the Saudi king and Melania not wearing a head scarf (fine) despite Trump saying that was an insult and making enemies when the Obamas did exactly the same thing, and Tillerson had a press conference to which US press was not invited. Oh, and the Saudis pledged $20 billion to a major Trump ally Blackstone after Trump said Islam is one of the world's great faiths (again not a problem, unless you are Trump during the election, when he said quite different things indeed). Then, in Trump's speech, he failed to use the term "radical Islamic terrorism" which, again, is fine...unless you're Trump, during the election. THe official defense was "he was exhausted" on literally the first day of his first country in his first overseas tour. But that could be a coincidence, right? Right?

Secondly, Israel. Honestly, the damage was done when Trump blatantly leaked Israeli intelligence directly and personally to Russia. The rest was basically icing -- saying the Holocause Museum was "so amazing" and cancelling a visit because he could not land a helicopter near an ancient ruins that would be damaged by helicopters. That's two visits, two countries, two issues with fatigue.

Thirdly, Europe. The United States is the only G7 member who not only refused to support the Paris Accord, but refused to support Article 5 of NATO (the one that says "attacking one is the same as attacking all"), instead threatening them to their collective face. The President of the European Union himself said he could not count on the United States anymore, nor does the WH have a clear plan on Russian sanctions for invading Ukraine. As is often the case, Trump's aides rushed to fill in the "What he meant was..." form with "it was enough that he showed up at all" or "of course he supports it, he just refused to say it when they asked, which of course makes no sense, because all the other nations that showed up supported Article 5. This is added to the fact that the EU is working on a way to continue the Iran Nuclear Deal in the chance the USA decides to voluntarily leave the treaty.

Also, Trump was the only person late to a NATO photo op because he was the only person that needed a golf cart to climb a small hill in 12C weather. So to recap: three visits to three countries, three issues with fatigue. That's not a coincidence, that's a pattern. Holy shit, when Trump said we would be tired of winning, I think he might have meant something else.

Also also, Trump was the only G7 attendee who did not give a press conference to anyone, USA or otherwise.

Merkel, having already spoken against Trump's bluster before his visit and then meeting with Obama first, apparently hurt Trump's feelings enough that "the Germans are bad, very bad" and he would stop them from selling cars to the US. Again, aides grabbed the "What he meant was..." form and filled in "...at trade, he meant bad at trade." As a reminder, Trump had some harsh words about tariffs on German cars if they didn't build plants in the US. Incidentally, BMW has been making cars in the USA since 1994, employs thousands of Americans, and their plant in South Carolina is their largest in the world.

Oh I almost forgot, Trump -- a confessed multiple adulterer, thief, and arguably idolator -- met the Pope. And the Pope trolled him. I'd say he did it with a smile, but we know for a fact he didn't.

Trump said, at the end of this tour, that money is now pouring into NATO. In case you didn't know, that's not how NATO works, nor is there any evidence any country has decided to spend any extra money. Zero.

Trump returns to this country, likely with a foul taste in his mouth, and immediately heads out to another campaign rally aaaaaaaaaaand it's gone. He's tiiiiiiiiiired. He's sleeeeeeeeeeeeeepy.

TRUMPCARE 2.0: JUDGEMENT DAY

Stalled.

You know how this went. Trump once again promised that TrumpCare 2.0 would be good for sick people, saying -- and I swear to God this is a direct quote -- "It will be every bit as good on preexisting conditions as ObamaCare. And Obamacare just so you know, Obamacare’s terrible on preexisting conditions, you know why? Cause you’re not going to have it.”

To date, that has not yet been translated from Trump to English.

Well, guess what? The changes most commonly known as the MacArthur Amendment shown here in its entirety specifically and directly allow states to opt out of, you guessed it, protecting those with pre-existing conditions. Oh, it also permits states to allow health care providers to stop covering ten major things such as ambulances, prescription drugs, and hospitalization. The vast majority of TrumpCare 2.0, other than this, matched TrumpCare 1.0 in all relevant respects.

Naturally, the same groups and experts as before said basically the same things as before. The AMA, AARP, TIME, Consumer Reports, both liberal and conservative think tanks, and a record-breaking number of Americans all clearly and logically pointed out how it would cut benefits to the poor, cut taxes for the rich, increase costs for the people who need it and not make a dent in the deficit or debt.

TrumpCare 2.0 was rushed to a vote before the CBO report came out, and the WH official position was that the effects would be impossible to predict anyhow. The Senate, however, did not do the same, and then the CBO report came out. Oh boy, did it ever. Turns out, everyone that wasn't Trump was right.

Summary of results: 23M lose health care, costs go up by thousands for those who are poor, old, or sick, $800 billion cut from Medicaid, around one in six Americans in states that will use the MacArthuer Amendment, premium costs drop by 10% or so because people who are sick can't afford health insurance, and $119B saved over ten years which is nearly nothing.

And to top everything off, TrumpCare 2.0 breaks just about every promise Trump made on the subject of health care. Especially the part where it would cover more people better for less money, which due to cuts to anything from cancer research to the CDC, TrumpCare 2.0 was literally zero for three.

Mitch McConnell openly, directly said there is no way to get even 50 votes, let alone the 60 he needs (Sanders pointed out that, due to the effects on the budget, they can't go nuclear on this one). So now the Senate is working on their own version from scratch -- behind closed doors without doctors or women by some reports -- trying to get further and further from the toxic bill they've been handed, which they seem to have no interest in voting on.

Oh...and let's not forget the other damage done to healthcare done by Trump's HHS budget and the alarming number of vacancies at the CDC.

THE ECONOMY: MALIGNANT GROWTH

You ge what you pay for.

Much has been said about Trump's budget. Much has been said about Trump's tax plan (admittedly still a rough draft at best). Sometimes, the same thing is said about both: the economy will fix it. But it turns out the economy, like many others, is being told by Trump to lift itself up by its bootstraps and work two jobs without health care.

Rather than risk a shutdown on Trump's 100th day, this Breitbart article details how the GOP caved like bitches and signed a half-year budget with almost nothing they want, and nothing Trump wants at all -- possibly because the man who touted his skills as a negotiator had basically nothing to do with the deal and Pelosi did. So, yeah, he was already off to a pretty poor start.

So then Trump published his own budget, as many before have. Trump can suggest a bill or budget like any other citizen, after all. It's more of a "wish list" than an exact set of orders. Trump had his "wish list" released while he was safely overseas to avoid the fallout. Besides the medical/Medicaid cuts above, it cuts 66 programs entirely such as flood hazard mapping, OSHA training grants, the National Endowment for the Arts, airport friggin security, LHEAP, the agency that brings in foreign tourism (did I mention tourism is plummeting under Trump? Because tourism is plummeting under Trump) and the Energy Star program which Trump's properties fail at; it will cut an educational program that helps with student loans for people who work for ten years in civil service (such as law enforcement) just days before the US would have to forgive its first debt; it allows states to add requirements to food stamps despite (a) most recipients working and (b) unemployment at a historic low; objectively hurts the South the most; and breaks seven different Trump campaign promises.

And that's not even the worst part.

The budget works on "fairy dust" math according to a former US Treasury Secretary. Trump's stated goal is to balance the budget in 10 years, without touching Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid whoops! and while increasing the budget of the military. While cutting taxes. How does he do it? By double-counting the effect of the economy by about two trillion dollars. Yes, that's trillion with a "t". In a nutshell, the budget assumes 3% growth will cover the shortfalls of the budget...but the WH is also counting on that same growth to cover the massive revenue loss in their upcoming tax plan. It's impossible. It's exactly the same thing as, say, claiming greater enforcement of tax collection will help US federal income just before you announce a major tax cut nationwide, making the collection basically irrelevant. Which the White House did too!

And that's not even the worst part!

Both of these economy-double-dipping issues have the same problem: three percent economy growth is just not realistic. Trump's policies won't change that. There are basically no experts who forsee this coming, let alone sticking around for years at a time. And there just aren't 25 million people left to hire. And, just to drive this point home, the first quarter of Trump saw the economy grow by 0.7 percent -- a drop from Obama's tenure, which I'll remind you, Trump said was stagnant. (Hey, if Trump is going to take credit for jobs created in February, I get to throw this back in his face. Also, the drop is mostly due to poor consumer spending, which is Trump's fault)

The budget has basically no fans. Mulvaney was grilled by Congress when he tried to defend it. Even Cornyn called it a "non starter" and "dead on arrival". There are not even hints that it will come up for a vote -- the GOP is already writing a new one from scratch.

Then there's the infrastructure plan, the one Trump said would get a trillion dollars worth of work without costing the US a cent. There has been nearly no movement on this. The Senate got tired of waiting and drafted a far more realistic and bipartisan bill of their own while Trump was busy golfing and tweeting.

But you can't talk about infrastructure without talking about the Wall. Actually, yes you can, the budget had zero Wall funds in it. So Mulvaney basically held up a picture of what the Wall would look like using "repair funds", reducing it from thirty (or whatever) feet of concrete and rebar to twelve-to-twenty feet of sheet metal and duct tape to places where there is already fence. And then hailed it as a victory! And he couldn't even say where it was! Mexico still won't pay for it (no citations needed at this point), the border tariff is basically dead, and even if Trump's budget of $1.6B applied every year for ten years in constant dollars, it still wouldn't be enough -- maybe even under half. Trump said it would take 3.5 years.

In the end, the issue could easily be a lack of a consistent policy. For example, there was the time Mnuchin told a crowded room they should all be thankful for their bank stocks being high, within hours of Trump saying he was considering breaking up big banks, which in turn, sent stock prices plummeting and still unstable. There is a reason Nouriel Roubini named Trump's policies as the number one threat to the GLOBAL economy. If you don't recognize the name, check him out. His expertise is basically unchallenged, but even if it wasn't, this Nobel Peace Prize economist and this other Nobel Peace Prize economist are lock-step anyhow.

TRUMP AND RUSSIA: MAKE IT STOP

Ugh...oh, God, here we go. I'll summarize best as I can, but there's a metric shitload of this stuff.

1) Yates testified publicly that she was very specific about warning Trump and his team that Flynn was compromised. Since her testimony, she has doubled then tripled down on this. She also was specific about the Muslim Ban being illegal. Which, again, it was. See above. If you search YouTube you can find bits where Yates absolutely schools various GOP traps laid for her, dropped the mic, and Hammerdanced offstage.
1a) The same hearing contains "unclassified is not leaking"

2) Comey testifies (previously post). Does not give Trump a chance to preview his testimony.

3) The Trump team did their own background check on Flynn, negating their earlier attempts to blame Obama.
3a) Oh, and Flynn lied to Obama anyhow, so the defense is double moot.
3b) And even past that, he needed higher clearance to sit on the NSC, which he didn't get, but still sat on the NSC. So the defense is triple moot.

4) Basically everyone has been asked to provide information, from Manafort to Page (he agrees to testify) to the Treasury Department to Rosenstein (refused to answer a lot, even behind closed doors) to Flynn's businesses and banks to the entire Trump campaign itself.

5) The White House's attempts to defend waiting 18 days to fire Flynn make no sense and possibly defy the laws of physics.
5a) Partly because Trump knew Flynn was being investigated weeks before the inauguration.
5b) And Trump to this day still says firing Flynn was a mistake.

6) Trump fires Comey. He and his team give multiple conflicting reasons for the firing, including where Trump flat-out admits it was because of the Russia investigation. This was just before he met with the Russians behind closed doors, told them the same thing, in a meeting demanded by Putin. And the White House defended it.
6a) Trump cited both Sessions and Rosenstein as why he fired Comey. Sessions had recused himself from the investigation, and Rosenstein was thrown under a bus (as he does not specifically call for Flynn's firing in his letter, despite knowing the reason he was asked to write it)
6b) In that same closed-door meeting, Russia could bring their state-run press, USA press was not allowed. Russia therefore live tweeted the entire meeting and posted pics, then trolled Trump with them.
6c) Reports include Comey would not back Trump's "wire tapp" claim, , and that Trump asked Comey thre times to say Trump wasn't under investigation, and Comey refused three times.
6d) THEN Trump makes a bizarre threat-like statement that makes it sound like he put a wire tapp on himself. THEN refused to clarify.
6e) Comey will testify publicly but needs to speak to Mueller first.

7) Trump has lawyered up with a personal (not goverment) law firm to defend against the Russian investigation. These lawyers say Trump's taxes will show "few" links to Russia (curiously not zero) but refuse to release them. Oh, the law firm is highly regarded in Russia.
7a) Also, this MMO-C post offers a handy list of known, proven, Trump ties to Russia, dating back for years.

8) Trump's rabid fanbase point out that Clinton fired the head of the FBI in an attempt to prove they have no idea what they're talking about. Clinton fired the head of the FBI for misusing funds after a lengthy investigation summed up by a 161-page document. Trump wrote half a page and attached two two-page letters, and did it unilaterally.

9) Literally everyone considered by Trump's team to replace Comey declined. No really. Literally. Everyone. Leiberman was the last. They're starting over from scratch.

10) The Washington Post breaks the story of Trump personally directly handing classified intel over to the Russians. The WH first denies this, then defends it, including -- I swear I'm not making this up -- that Trump is too incompetent to leak intelligence.

11) That one bears repeating. A Trump appointee, speaking officially, basically said Trump was too ill-informed to offer classified information. What. The. Fuck.

12) Then the Comey Memo came out -- why was ANYONE surprised the head of the FBI wrote stuff down? -- in which Comey not only said he was pressured to end the Russia investigation (as were other ranking intelligence officials including the head of the NSA), but also to lock up journalists.
12a) Mueller has the memos.
12b) Chaffetz wants them next.

13) The Senate, after being told by Rosenstein the Russian investigation is now partly criminal (and, therefore, Mueller is top dog), themselves goes for broad subpoena authority because they really want to see this play out.
13a) They have at least eighteen things to talk about.

14) And finally, chronologically at least, Kushner failed to disclose Russian contacts on his security clearance forms -- actions a former head of the CIA says could be called espionage. Trump blames Obama.

If you want a TL:DR version of this, first of all, shame on you, you know how my posts go. But second of all, here you go.

MISC: SHUFFLE UP AND DEAL WITH IT

Before I sign off (please, God, let it be more than a month this time) here are some smaller stories that didn't quite fit into any category.
1) One of Trump's campaign aides has been selling access to his clients to Trump.
2) Trump said he couldn't care less about golf.
3) Signing executive orders is only shameful when you're not the one doing so even faster than Obama.
4) Trump holds a campaign rally and blatantly lies about its size. Sound familiar?
4a) No, I meant about crowd sizes, not his penis.
5) FOX News makes a desperate play to spin Trump's first 100 days into a success story before they drop to third place in the ratings -- mostly for trying to spin Trump stories.
6) The White House confirms they're looking into libel laws concerning stories about the Russian investigation, for which there is evidence.
7) The Onion has a good list of Trump's First 100 Days.
8) Assorted history-fucking of Andrew Jackson being against the Civil War etc.
9) When Trump was asked by a reporter Trump personally asked to interview him, about his "wire tapp" claim, Trump ends the interview, sits down, and sulks on live fucking camera.
10) Chris Christie vetoes a NJ bill that would require Trump to release his tax returns to run in NJ.
11) Trump's team made a campaign ad touting the success of its first 100 days. It had enough lies in it that NBC, ABC, and CBS all refused to air it.
11a) So did CNN, but, well, duh, but Trump called that censorship because he doesn't know how capitalism works.
12) Turns out, Kushner had fiscal contacts with both Soros and Goldman Sachs. And lied about it!
13) Howard Stern says Trump didn't really want to win.
14) Pence tried to spend the budget as a win for Trump. Even Rush Limbaugh laughed this off.
15) Ivanka Trump met with the head of the EPA...for some reason.
16) Trump is on path to be sued more than the last three Presidents combined.
17) The Kushner family business used Kushner and Trump to sell "investor visas" to wealthy Chinese.
18) The FDA was only allowed to show FOX News on TVs inside their offices.
19) The Trump Taj Mahal was sold for four cents on the dollar, and that's not even constant dollars.
20) The EPA fires most of its board of scientists to replace them with energy CEOs.
21) The Trump campaign website is caught tracking its followers BlueTooth devices in...something that...look, I give up, I have no fucking idea on this one.
22) For the second time, the State Dept official website endorses a Trump product, this time Ivanka's book.
23) Spicer wanders into the pres conference after Comey's firing like a frog into a spotlight, says "I don't know" a record number of times, then hides in a hedge.
24) Goddam steam.
25) After contradicting his own spokespeople and other WH staff by changing his Comey story a whopping four times, Trump threatens to cancel all WH press briefings because he cannot guarantee they'll be accurate.
25a) ANd he yelled at them as if it was their fault somehow.
26) Falwell gives Trump an honorary law degree that has the same value as a Trump University diploma.
27) Conway wants to take a shower every time she defends Trump.
28) Trump Jr. gives a paid speech in Dubai. This isn't necessarily a problem, except for all the noise Trump made about Clinton's paid speeches.
29) The...fourth? fifth? I lost count...Trump nominee to be accused of plagiarism is Sheriff David Clark.
30) Trump moves to block ethics inquiry into lobbyists for about thirty seconds then caves.
31) Not satisfied with giving intel to the Russians, Trump tells Duterte where our nuclear submarines are.
32) Despite being required by law to do so Trump properties are not disclosing foreign money, nor turning it over, because it's too hard.
33) Jared and Ivanka flee Trump's overseas trip at halftime.
34) Comparing Trump to Nixon is unfair to Nixon. Nixon never fired the head of the FBI.
35) Ann Coulter publicly admits she may have backed a loser.
36) The man Trump hired to write his own autobiography says Trump is in full meltdown mode.
37) Foreign leaders were told to get on Trump's good side by praising his EC victory.
38) Trump STILL has a record number of vacancies he's supposed to fill.
39) The founder of Twitter apologizes for helping Trump win.
40) Pence attends the Notre Dame graduation, hundreds of students walk out, and the school is 100% okay with that.
41) DeVos...just, everything.
42) Jealous of all the fun Russia's been having, China is now buzzing US military with plenes as well.
43) France.
44) Trump tweets about Yates' testimony trying to spin it as if he won.
45) Trump wished everyone a joyful Ramadan. Ramadan is not traditionally joyful. Then he brought up the Manchester attacks, which was also not particularly joyful.
47) In order to de-escalate the North Korea situation, Trump threatens SOUTH Korea by asking them to pay for the THAAD missle defense system, and to restructure our "horrible" trade deals with them.
48) The Senate moves to block the Saudi arms deal out of fear it would be used to make the fight in Yemen worse.
49) In the ongoing effort to de-escalate the Syria situation, http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/04/politics/syria-mosque-march-strike-us-investigation/index.html]the USA bombs a mosque and started arming the rebels.
49a) Rebels which the guy becoming the dictator of Turkey -- the guy Trump recently praised -- [url=http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkey-threatens-strikes-us-allied-syrian-kurds-47113101?cid=clicksource_4380645_1_hero_headlines_headlines_hedis going to blatantly air strike[/url].
50) Trump airs an illegal ad because you can't show on-duty military in a political ad.
51) The big anti-LBGT "religious freedom" E.O. Trump signed turned out to be a do-nothing photo op.
52) Trump's polling numbers -- both in total support and "strong" support -- have reached yet another new historic low.

IN CONCLUSION

Trump's troubles have been especially savage this last month. A lukewarm to poor foreign visit is just where it starts. Between the joint failures of TrumpCare 2.0, Congress' budget, his budget, and the Muslim Ban, this would be a bad time for anyone. Add the Russian investigation, which didn't go away (as planned?) with Comey's firing, but instead picking up momentum, and we're into catastrafuck territory.

Trump faces a crisis of legitimacy. He has betrayed his own voters, and allies near and far. The calls for impeachment are no longer hyperoble -- even the White House is now researching this option seriously. With plunging support amongst the other two branches of government, possibly within his own branch of government, and the American people in increasing numbers, he's looking more and more like a lame duck and it's not even summer.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone.

[Puupi]

Holy Mexican border wall of text!

[callipygoustp]

Dammit, when I saw the title I was hoping for a youtube video that involved Americans running from and fighting against Russian zombies created by Trump and his staff.

"John was involved in a car accident on November 7, 2016. He suffers severe brain damage that leaves him in a coma. 128 days later John wakes up!!!

He can find no one in the hospital. He only sees blood trails on the walls and floors. What is going on...."

[lazypeon100]

Hey Breccia, great post as always! Bit of constructive criticism / food for thought for you. Is there anyway you can bold the start of the different sections you've made?

There's a ton of well put information here, though it's difficult to sort through as is (in my opinion anyway) and might overload people with info who may actually be interested.

[Breccia]

Hey Breccia, great post as always! Bit of constructive criticism / food for thought for you. Is there anyway you can bold the start of the different sections you've made?

That's fair.

[Mittens]

Does the right-wing realize yet that their politicians don't have any real or workable agendas beyond pushing religion down everyone's throats?

Imagine saying this while thinking Bernie is a good politician.

[Masark]

Does the right-wing realize yet that their politicians don't have any real or workable agendas beyond pushing religion down everyone's throats?

What other policies could they ever need?

[Draco-Onis]

Holy Mexican border wall of text!

Mexico is still not going to pay for it

[jakeic]

Does the right-wing realize yet that their politicians don't have any real or workable agendas beyond pushing religion down everyone's throats?

No. I sat down with a buddy today who is staunchly on the right, who isn't an uninformed guy. He told me all of this Russia stuff was non-sense, that if there was any damning information it would have come out already, and that he didn't support trump or like paul ryan, but was happy there were not democrats in charge. He also thought that the "for every one regulation, two have to come of the books" was the best policy of the last 30 years.

I don't even know what to say to these things.

[PACOX]

Does the right-wing realize yet that their politicians don't have any real or workable agendas beyond pushing religion down everyone's throats?

Paul Ryan said that (more or less) when the first iteration of Trumpcare failed to clear the House. And the only reason why the second one cleared was because they weren't counting completions, only attempted Hail Marys.

The GOP is an unified party. Its good are partisan voting, anything red will get approved if only to undermine the blue, but not actual legislation

[lazypeon100]

That's fair.

Thanks for the change man, much easier on my eyes!

Curious how what Trump will decide about the paris accord. Rumor mill is that he's already decided the US will not be taking part in it again. If he goes that route, not only is that bad for the climate, I can't imagine that will help with our foreign relations.

[Ahhdurr]

Waiting for all the Dumpsters to come out in support.

- - - Updated - - -

I can't imagine that will help with our foreign relations.

Or investments. Screw the energy source of the future. We have dinosaurs to burn!

[Breccia]

Curious how what Trump will decide about the paris accord. Rumor mill is that he's already decided the US will not be taking part in it again.

Trump is a known bully. Like all bullies, he's also a coward. At G7, he was surrounded constantly by people who believe strongly that climate change is real and are willing to act upon that using science and evidence. Also, the Pope flat-out handed him a note that says "climate change is real, ask everyone, also I'm the Pope and I'm infallible". Trump, being a bully and therefore a coward when confronted, acted as if there was still some wiggle room, and promised the Pope he'd read that note at some point. Question: how quickly do you go to hell for lying to the Pope's face?

If this sounds familiar, it's because Trump has already done this. During the election, Trump visited Mexico with Giuliani. While behind closed doors, the President of Mexico asked Trump about the Wall, and Giuliani immediately shut that conversation down, saying that none of them would talk about it. Shortly thereafter, Trump and the President of Mexico held a joint press conference in which there were two questions asked:
1) Did you discuss who would pay for the Wall?
2) Why not?
In case you haven't figured it out, Trump answered both questions with blatant lies.

Trump then immediately left the pres conference, flew to a campaign rally, and announced that Mexico would pay for the Wall to massive cheers. Man, can you imagine how angry those people are? Well, I guess Congress will pay for the...oh wait, no, they're not paying for the Wall, either. Well I guess a border tariff will...oh, right, that too.

Anyhow, expect to see exactly the same thing happen. Trump will surround himself with the security blanket of yes-men or his rabid fanbase, announce with pride that he's pulling the US from the Paris Accord, raise his fists in the air and grin, believing that since 100% of the people in the room are cheering, 100% of America is too.

He was going to do it June 1 at a campaign rally, but apparently the effort of visiting three countries was too much for him. He's tiiiiiiiiiiiired. He's sleeeeeeeeeeeeepy.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

The trumpster fire has just started.

[Cerilis]

Reading this is like watching a train wreck: It's disturbing, but somehow you also can't stop.

[Wilian]

Holy Mexican border wall of text!

But it's not, it's well paragraphed.

[Cthulhu 2020]

As much as I'd love to see Trump get thrown out of the oval office, I also realize that if he stays in it, 1. He may end up getting nothing done after all and 2. He'll be an easy political opponent for anyone to beat. If Hillary hadn't already used all of her political capital, she could beat Trump easily in round 2.

Plus if he runs in 2020 for reelection, we have another 3.5 years of political fuck ups to mar his presidency and give the Democrats plenty of fire to win tons of down-ticket races.

[Skroe]

The worst days of Trump-Russia are ahead of our illegitimate President, not behind. That's absolutely the best part.

Also thanks for your service here Breccia. A+ summary.

[Mittens]

>There was also some noise about him selling off half our oil reserves which I admit I'm not fully versed on, but according to people who are, the reserves are an "insurance" against fluctuations in the market...which Trump is causing. Also, wouldn't this glut the market and drive prices down? Why'd he announce this while in Saudi Arabia of all places?

They are an insurance in case something akin to 1979 repeats. Not against markets being oversaturated.

The USA doesn't really need it as it has shale and even OPEC nations + Russia are begging the USA to control it's oil industry.

[Time Sage]

I kinda wish we could up vote on the forums. So many posts here are deserving.